Present-day shifter mechanisms for vehicles are constructed in a number of different ways but substantially all of them include a base, a structure for pivoting a lever assembly on such base, and a detent plate having detent notches in which the pawl of the shifter lever assembly is located. The position of the pawl within various notches of the detent plate determines the mode of the transmission being controlled by the shifter. The types and structures of such shifters are too numerous to describe. Suffice it to say that efforts have been made to simplify the construction and assembly of such shifters in order to reduce the cost in both the parts and in the assembly methods so as to reduce the labor required both in the fabrication and in the assembly of the various parts of the shifter.
Another problem in vehicle shifters resides in the means for pivoting the lever assembly so as to provide the optimum less effort in pivoting the lever assembly fore and aft of the vehicle while at the same time minimizing any looseness in the side-wise motion of the lever assembly. Attempts have been made to eliminate or to minimize this side looseness, but such attempts have resulted in adversely affecting the forward effort required to shift. Also, efforts have been made to minimize the forward effort in shifting by eliminating the side-wise friction on the shifter assembly, but this has resulted in side looseness. Therefore, there has existed for some time a need for a structure which divorces the side looseness from the forward shifting effort.
The object of the present invention is to provide a simplified, low-cost version of a vehicle shifting mechanism by reducing the number of parts. Further, another object of this invention is to not only provide a simplified, lower cost version of a vehicle shifter, but one which provides for an improved pivoting means for the lever assembly which is easier to assemble and which divorces the side-wise looseness of the lever assembly from the forward shifting effort.